The mist over Fluxion's sky hadn't cleared since the Aeterion Surge.
Even from the academy's highest tower, the ruins of the Abandoned District still shimmered faintly — as if the world itself was afraid to breathe too loud.
Beneath the capital, in the heart of Novacorp Headquarters, the air was colder than ice.
A single holographic table projected scenes of devastation — cracked earth, collapsing ruins, and flickering life signals.
The room's silence broke only when Director Kael Voss spoke.
His voice was calm, but his eyes carried the kind of focus that could dissect truth itself.
"The surge originated exactly where our scanners placed the Tier 3 anomaly," he said, arms folded. "Yet the energy signature doesn't match any beast in the system."
Across the table, a young man in an immaculate white coat — heir to one of the Tenshira Elite Families, Lucien Tenshira — leaned forward, the faint light reflecting off his platinum hair.
"You're saying something else was there," Lucien said quietly.
Kael nodded once. "Something… old. Something alive."
A few holographic feeds replayed the event — the explosion of blue-white light that erased half the Abandoned District.
Lucien's eyes narrowed. "And the academy?"
"They're covering it," Kael replied flatly. "Darius already pulled out a handful of survivors before the surge. One of them — a boy named Jiro Tensai — triggered every system error we have. Triple-core readings. Impossible numbers."
A faint murmur filled the chamber.
The other elite representatives shifted in their seats — wary, hungry.
"So the unregistered surge came from him," Lucien said.
Kael's lips curved slightly. "That's what I intend to confirm. If the Fluxion Core Theory is true… he may be carrying what we've been hunting for years."
Lucien exhaled slowly, his eyes glinting. "Then the others — the sects — must not find out."
Kael smiled thinly. "They won't. The Ashen Lotus and Flower Bloom Sects only care about spiritual balance and divine cycles. Let them meditate while we claim evolution itself."
The room dimmed for a moment as an incoming feed flickered to life — surveillance from the recovery zone.
Among the rows of unconscious students, two figures lay under containment shields.
"Arisa Kaen," Kael read aloud. "And Jiro Tensai. Both unaligned. Both retrieved from the epicenter."
Lucien's eyes lingered on the faint glow under Jiro's abdomen — the egg-mark pulsing once, almost like a heartbeat.
"He's the key," Lucien murmured.
Kael's gaze darkened. "Then he belongs to us."
Silence settled once more.
But deep within the city — in a distant mountain monastery where the Ashen Lotus Sect watched the skies — Elder Myria Han stood before a floating mirror of light.
She had seen the same surge, the same pattern in the ether streams.
And though her expression didn't change, her words whispered like prophecy.
"The flux has chosen a vessel again," she said softly. "But this time… the world may not survive him."
The wind howled outside — the aftermath of something far greater than a trial.
And as the factions prepared to move, one truth lingered in the silence of Fluxion:
the boy they sought to control… had already begun to awaken.
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